The Tomahawk cruise missile salesman watched as a group of Iraqis, in identikit Ba’ath Party uniforms and Saddam moustaches, wandered past his marketing pavilion. “Have they dropped by the stand yet?” I asked, innocently. “No, sir,” said the man, giving the single-forefinger gesture to the retreating Iraqis.
Welcome to Amman, Jordan, and to the Special Operations Forces Exhibition (Sofex). Even for a trade famously unfastidious about the people it mixes with, this was an unusually inclusive occasion. Apart from North Korea, every single member of President Bush’s “axis of evil”, “states of concern” and “sponsors of terrorism” clubs was down at Sofex, chequebook in pocket. Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan and Iraq – they all sent official delegations to see, and possibly to buy. On the other side were the sellers: Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia – and, biggest of all, Britain.
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